Recent from talks
Shabaka Stone
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Shabaka Stone
The Shabaka Stone, sometimes Shabaqo, is a relic incised with an ancient Egyptian religious text, which dates from the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt. In later years, the stone was likely used as a millstone, which damaged the hieroglyphs. This damage is accompanied by other intentional defacements, leaving the hieroglyphic inscription in poor condition.
Originally erected as a lasting monument at the Great Temple of Ptah in Memphis in the late eighth century BCE, the stone was at some point removed (for unknown reasons) to Alexandria. From there, it was transported by a navy vessel from Alexandria to England. It was brought back as ballast along with a capital of an Egyptian column, fragments of a Greco-Roman black basalt capital, two fragments of quartzite lintel of Senusret III, and a black granite kneeling statue of Ramesses II. In 1805, the stone was donated to the British Museum by George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758–1834), who was First Lord of the Admiralty and since 1794 the trustee of the museum. In 1901, the stone was deciphered, translated, and interpreted for the first time by the American Egyptologist James Henry Breasted. The monument has remained at the museum to the present day.
The stone's dedicatory introduction claims that it is a copy of the surviving contents of a worm-ridden, decaying papyrus found by the pharaoh Shabaka in the Great Temple of Ptah. Homer W. Smith dates the original text to the First Dynasty, calling it "the oldest written record of human thought".
Breasted, Adolf Erman, Kurt Sethe, and Hermann Junker all dated the stone to the Old Kingdom. The stone is archaic, both linguistically (its language is similar to that used in the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom) and politically (it alludes to the importance of Memphis as the first royal city). As such, Henri Frankfort, John Wilson, Miriam Lichtheim, and Erik Iversen have also assessed the stone to be from the Old Kingdom. However, Friedrich Junge and most other scholars since then have argued that the monument was produced in the Twenty-fifth Dynasty. Today, scholars feel it is clear that it cannot predate the Nineteenth Dynasty.
The stela is around 137 centimetres (54 in) wide, with the left side height estimated at 91 cm (36 in) and the right side about 95 cm (37 in). The written surface is 132 cm (52 in) in width and on average, 66 cm (26 in) in height. The rectangular hole in the center is 12 by 14 cm (4.7 by 5.5 in), with eleven radiating lines ranging in length from 25 to 38 cm (9.8 to 15.0 in), comprising an area 78 cm (31 in) across.
In 1901, Breasted identified the stone as a rectangular slab of black granite. While other scholars postulated that the monument was a slab or basalt or a conglomerate stone, a recent analysis by a scientist of the British Museum revealed the stone to be green breccia originating from Wadi Hammamat.
The text includes two main divisions with a short introduction and an ending summary. The first division relates the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. Ptah works through Horus to accomplish this unification. The other is a creation myth, the "Memphite Theology" or "Memphite Drama", that establishes Ptah as the creator of all things, including gods.
The text stresses that it is in Memphis that the unification of Egypt took place. The inscription also states that this town was the burial-place of Osiris, after he drifted ashore.
Hub AI
Shabaka Stone AI simulator
(@Shabaka Stone_simulator)
Shabaka Stone
The Shabaka Stone, sometimes Shabaqo, is a relic incised with an ancient Egyptian religious text, which dates from the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt. In later years, the stone was likely used as a millstone, which damaged the hieroglyphs. This damage is accompanied by other intentional defacements, leaving the hieroglyphic inscription in poor condition.
Originally erected as a lasting monument at the Great Temple of Ptah in Memphis in the late eighth century BCE, the stone was at some point removed (for unknown reasons) to Alexandria. From there, it was transported by a navy vessel from Alexandria to England. It was brought back as ballast along with a capital of an Egyptian column, fragments of a Greco-Roman black basalt capital, two fragments of quartzite lintel of Senusret III, and a black granite kneeling statue of Ramesses II. In 1805, the stone was donated to the British Museum by George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758–1834), who was First Lord of the Admiralty and since 1794 the trustee of the museum. In 1901, the stone was deciphered, translated, and interpreted for the first time by the American Egyptologist James Henry Breasted. The monument has remained at the museum to the present day.
The stone's dedicatory introduction claims that it is a copy of the surviving contents of a worm-ridden, decaying papyrus found by the pharaoh Shabaka in the Great Temple of Ptah. Homer W. Smith dates the original text to the First Dynasty, calling it "the oldest written record of human thought".
Breasted, Adolf Erman, Kurt Sethe, and Hermann Junker all dated the stone to the Old Kingdom. The stone is archaic, both linguistically (its language is similar to that used in the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom) and politically (it alludes to the importance of Memphis as the first royal city). As such, Henri Frankfort, John Wilson, Miriam Lichtheim, and Erik Iversen have also assessed the stone to be from the Old Kingdom. However, Friedrich Junge and most other scholars since then have argued that the monument was produced in the Twenty-fifth Dynasty. Today, scholars feel it is clear that it cannot predate the Nineteenth Dynasty.
The stela is around 137 centimetres (54 in) wide, with the left side height estimated at 91 cm (36 in) and the right side about 95 cm (37 in). The written surface is 132 cm (52 in) in width and on average, 66 cm (26 in) in height. The rectangular hole in the center is 12 by 14 cm (4.7 by 5.5 in), with eleven radiating lines ranging in length from 25 to 38 cm (9.8 to 15.0 in), comprising an area 78 cm (31 in) across.
In 1901, Breasted identified the stone as a rectangular slab of black granite. While other scholars postulated that the monument was a slab or basalt or a conglomerate stone, a recent analysis by a scientist of the British Museum revealed the stone to be green breccia originating from Wadi Hammamat.
The text includes two main divisions with a short introduction and an ending summary. The first division relates the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. Ptah works through Horus to accomplish this unification. The other is a creation myth, the "Memphite Theology" or "Memphite Drama", that establishes Ptah as the creator of all things, including gods.
The text stresses that it is in Memphis that the unification of Egypt took place. The inscription also states that this town was the burial-place of Osiris, after he drifted ashore.
Recent media